Private Finance Initiative

HC Deb 16 June 1997 vol 296 cc17-8W

Mr. Richard Allan

To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether public funds will be made available in 1997 for the building of the new maternity hospital at the Stone Grove site in Sheffield if the PFI hid proves to be unsatisfactory. [2545]

Mr. Milburn

The private finance initiative scheme for the new maternity hospital for Central Sheffield University Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the 43 acute sector PFI projects included in the prioritisation exercise we announced on 10 June. An announcement on those schemes which have been selected to proceed will be made at the end of June.

Those trusts which fail to be prioritised will be invited to stop further work on their PFI schemes. Their projects will then be reconsidered and prioritised nationally alongside schemes that are competing for public capital. They will then be progressed under the PFI, if that is appropriate, or considered for funding from available public capital.